Our Lady of Virtues

March 8: Our Lady of Virtues, Lisbon,
Portugal

Nossa Senhora de
Virtudes

The Church of the monastery of Our Lady of Virtues, or Nossa Senhora de
Virtudes in Portuguese, until recently was nothing more than a ruin located north of
Lisbon, Portugal. A small church was constructed in 2009, and further work is planned. The site is now protected because of its historical importance, but for no other reason, as pilgrimages and devotion to the Blessed Virgin declined from the 19th century until the 21st century when there remained almost no memory of the glory that once was.

According to tradition, the origin of the Church of Our Lady of Virtues
relates to the appearance of Our Lady to a keeper of cows back in the early
fifteenth century. The apparition gave rise to a pilgrimage to the site, as
well as the later construction of a primitive chapel, presumably made of wood
and other perishable materials. A short time later, due to the growing
importance of the site and the devotion of the faithful that he saw going on
around him, King Duarte
commanded that a Franciscan monastery be built that would be attached to the
chapel. Following upon the construction of the monastery, a hospital was also
soon built, and then subsequently inns and other businesses supporting the thriving
community that grew up around the chapel. Pilgrimages to the shrine became
widespread throughout the remainder of the fifteenth century.

Our Lady of Virtues

Of unquestionable importance throughout the Middle Ages, the more recent
centuries have seen the abandonment of pilgrimages to the shrine, as well as
the decay of the buildings and the eventual abandonment of the site by the
Franciscans. At the beginning of the 1990’s, when excavations were made at the
monastery, all that remained was ruins. Despite the fact that the monastery was
almost completely destroyed, there are still some structural remains located on
the north side of the church, and most of these structures are assumed to still
be buried beneath the earth. This is believed because the church of Our Lady of
Virtues itself was partially buried before the archaeological work was begun to
reveal it.

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